Ancient ID Help Needed

RIC means ROMAN IMPERIAL COINS, the great work about this coinage made by the British Museum; VII is the volume number (number 7), 120 is the number of the coin, and the (R2) means the rarity of the coin, but actually is not very reliable...

Slight revision. The coins in RIC VII are arranged by mint, and the numerical listings start with #1 for each mint. Zach Beasley did the website you used, and he had specified in the description that the mint for that particular example was Heraclea. So for identification of that coin the full citation should read RIC VII Heraclea 120.

I wish for your sake it were that simple, but it is not.

For coins of this type from Heraclea, the default officina (workshop) was number 4, signified in the mint mark by a Greek letter <delta>. From what I am seeing, your coin does have a delta near the end of the mark. But it also appears to me that the delta is followed by another small mark which I take to be a dot. That is important for identification, since the ID for the item you cited from the Beasley site only applies to coins in which the mint mark is of the form <dot>SMH<delta>

For your coin I can make out _MH<delta><dot>, and presumably there is an S ahead of the M. However, I cannot tell if there was anything ahead of the S, and that matters in this case.

If there is indeed a final dot in the mint mark, then there are two possible RIC entries for coins of this type from Heraclea, and neither of them is #120. They are as follows:

125 - <dot>SMH<delta><dot> (R= s)
135 - <dot><dot>SMH<delta><dot> (R= r3)

Since the critical point of distinction is off the flan on your coin, we cannot determine which of these two it might be. But the first of these is the most commonly encountered variety for this type at Heraclea.

If I am wrong and there is no final dot at the end of the mint mark, then there are three entirely different possibilities for what the RIC number for your coin might be (one of which can be excluded for other reasons). I can brief you on that if you need it, but let us first establish what is actually happening at the end of that mark on your coin.

I always enjoy the quick and reliable information provided in this section. I know I'm getting closer to digging out my old ancients.

Wow! I want your camera, Pete! Great, sharp details.




CCF needs to add a happy birthday emoji. Happy B-Day!

Which just goes to show yet again: sometimes its the gear, but more often its how the gear is used.


Now I am sure that
1. your mark has a final dot
and
2. we will not be able to determine what, if anything, lies ahead of the initial letter of the mint mark, since all but the tip of the "S" itself is off the flan.

So it is either 125 or 135 for Heraclea in RIC VII.